Event Title
Stoning, Women's Rights, and Western Attitudes in Northern Nigeria: The Infamous Case of Amina Lawal
Description
Through an analysis of the stoning trial of Amina Lawal, a peasant woman from Northern Nigeria, for committing adultery, Dr. Eltantawi will analyze the history and present tense symbolic value of sharia in Northern Nigerian society, paying special attention to the theological history of stoning in Islam and the role of gender and the western reaction to Amina Lawal’s case.
About the Lecturer: Dr. Sarah Eltantawi is a scholar of Islam. She is Member of the Faculty in Comparative Religion and Islamic Studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA (Asst. Prof), and a Research Scholar at the Middle East Center of the University of Washington. She earned her PhD in the Study of Religion in 2012 from Harvard University, where she was the Jennifer W. Oppenheimer Fellow and Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She has academic fellowships at Brandeis University, UC Berkeley, and at the Forum Transregionalle at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin as well as the Freie Universität in Berlin. She obtained an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and a BA in Rhetoric and English literature from UC Berkeley. Her forthcoming book Sharia on Trial: Northern Nigeria’s Islamic Revolution (University of California, 2017), examines why Northern Nigerians took to the streets starting in 1999 to demand the reimplementation of sharia law. Dr. Eltantawi is currently at work on a new book that takes up the rise of the of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from 1928 – the present, focusing on the question of the group’s “political theology” and its place in traditions of political theory. Dr. Eltantawi has also published on issues ranging from early Shi’ite jurisprudence to perceptions of “post-modernity” in Nigeria to the revolution in Egypt. Eltantawi is on the steering committee for the Contemporary Islam and Politics and Religion Sections of the American Academy of Religion, and is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau for Humanities Washington, a National Foundation for the Humanities sponsored organization dedicated to fostering critical thinking in the state of Washington.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
26-4-2017 12:00 PM
End Date
26-4-2017 1:20 PM
Location
Fairhaven College Auditorium
Resource Type
Moving image
Title of Series
World Issues Forum
Genre/Form
lectures
Contributing Repository
Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Islamic law--Nigeria--History; Islam--Customs and practices; Islam--Religious aspects; Women's rights--Nigeria; Stoning (Islamic law)--Nigeria; Human rights--Nigeria--History
Subjects – Names (LCNAF)
Lawal, Amina--Trials, litigation, etc.
Geographic Coverage
Nigeria, Northern
Type
Moving image
Keywords
Amina Lawal, Stoning, Women's rights, Northern Nigerian society
Rights
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws.
Language
English
Format
video/mp4
Stoning, Women's Rights, and Western Attitudes in Northern Nigeria: The Infamous Case of Amina Lawal
Fairhaven College Auditorium
Through an analysis of the stoning trial of Amina Lawal, a peasant woman from Northern Nigeria, for committing adultery, Dr. Eltantawi will analyze the history and present tense symbolic value of sharia in Northern Nigerian society, paying special attention to the theological history of stoning in Islam and the role of gender and the western reaction to Amina Lawal’s case.
About the Lecturer: Dr. Sarah Eltantawi is a scholar of Islam. She is Member of the Faculty in Comparative Religion and Islamic Studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA (Asst. Prof), and a Research Scholar at the Middle East Center of the University of Washington. She earned her PhD in the Study of Religion in 2012 from Harvard University, where she was the Jennifer W. Oppenheimer Fellow and Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She has academic fellowships at Brandeis University, UC Berkeley, and at the Forum Transregionalle at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin as well as the Freie Universität in Berlin. She obtained an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and a BA in Rhetoric and English literature from UC Berkeley. Her forthcoming book Sharia on Trial: Northern Nigeria’s Islamic Revolution (University of California, 2017), examines why Northern Nigerians took to the streets starting in 1999 to demand the reimplementation of sharia law. Dr. Eltantawi is currently at work on a new book that takes up the rise of the of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from 1928 – the present, focusing on the question of the group’s “political theology” and its place in traditions of political theory. Dr. Eltantawi has also published on issues ranging from early Shi’ite jurisprudence to perceptions of “post-modernity” in Nigeria to the revolution in Egypt. Eltantawi is on the steering committee for the Contemporary Islam and Politics and Religion Sections of the American Academy of Religion, and is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau for Humanities Washington, a National Foundation for the Humanities sponsored organization dedicated to fostering critical thinking in the state of Washington.
